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USE OF THE ARMY IN LOUISIANA. 



SPEECH 



HON. THOMAS F. ^AYARD, 



OF BE I. A WARE. 



SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, 



JANUARY 8, 18751 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 

1875. 



A 376' 

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• 



SPEECH 



HOT^. THOMAS F. BAYAED 



Mr. BAYARD said: 

Mr. Pi!E8IDEXT: I call for the reading of the resolution uow before 
tlie Senate, and of the amendment of the Senator from New York. 

The Chief Clerk. The resolution is as follows : 

Eesolved, That the President of thoUuitetl States is hereby requested to iuform 
the Senate whether any portion of the Army of the United States, or any officer or 
offlcer.M, soldier or soldiers of such Army, did in any manner iutcrfeii' or intrrincd- 
die witii, control or seek to control, tlil; oryauization of tln^ Ci-ncral Asscndily of 
the State of Loui.siaua, or either lirauch tlicrcof, on the 4tli instant; and csi)ecially 
whether any person or persons clainiiuf; scats in either lirancli of said Li'uislature 
have been deprived thereof, or prevented from takinj; the same, by any such mili- 
tary force, officer, or soldier ; and if such lias Vieen tlu' case, tln'U that the I'resident 
inform the Senate by what authority such military iutervcutiou and interference 
have taken place. 

The amendment is to insert after the word " Senate " the words "if 
in his judo-nient not incompatihle with the puldic interests." 

Mr. BAYARD. Mr. President, in my judgment the amendment 
Xn-oposed by the honorable Senator from New York to this resolution 
is quite out of place and unnecessary. The resolution itself, we all 
know as a public fact, was a mere formal preliminary to congressional 
action. It was an orderly and respectful call upon a co-ordinate 
branch of the Government to account for his apparent exercise of iin- 
lawful power. I do not now propose to debate the question raised 
by the amendment of the Senator from New York , not because it is 
not important iu itself, and touches an interesting, grave, and sub- 
stantial question, but because it is overshadowed by the main subject 
upon which it is now sought to be ingrafted. Nor, since I have been 
personally referred to by that Senator as an atithority to sustain the 
invariability of the amended form which he proposes, shall I do more 
than say thiit about two years ago I was endeavoring to save the de- 
pleted treasury of the State of South Carolina from further and gross 
peculation and robbery, and sought by a resolution of inquiry to draw 
the attention of the country and of the President of the United States 
and his subordinates to the case so that the scheme of plunder might 
be arrested, if there was a disposition to do so. 

In this attempt, however, I Avas, as usual in this body, unsuccess- 
ful, for the resolution, although it was adopted early in the month of 
March, 1873, and was sent to "the President, was treated by him and 
his Secretary of War with contemptuous silence, and the wrong-doer 
was not only permitted to consummate his wrong, but he has been 
encouraged to repeat it, and to-day we lind him sent to " fresh fields 
and pastures new" in the Sttite of Louisiana, to repeat there the 
operations that made his name so notorious iu the State of South 
Carolina. I refer to one Major Lewis Merrill, of the United States 



CaTalry, who has added to his notoriety by his lata coiigeuiar opera- 
tions in the State of Louisiana, for whicli he has been siiecially de- 
tailed by the Secretary of War ^\'ith a full knowledge of the facts 
that iireceded his conduct in South Carolina. 

The amendment to the resolution originated not with me but with 
the Senator from New York, who now offers it in the same phrase to 
the present resolution. I was at that time compelled to accept it or 
virtually lose the possibility of having my resolution adopted. I 
offered it as soon as the facts were made known to me. There 
were but two working days left of the session, and the objection 
which was made upon the first day would have continued it over, 
and I was glad to have it accejited in any form, even with the en- 
tirely superfluous, and, as I' thought then, improper addition which 
was put upon it. I made no objection to it. In that way alone the 
resolution, as amended by the Senator from New York, came before 
the Senate. 

But, Mr. President, that is a very small matter compared to the 
gravity of the crisis in which I believe the people of the United 
States find themselves this day. If I overrate it, it is because the 
deep solicitude which I feel in everything touching my public duty 
and the Avelfare of my countrymen must account for the error in 
judgment. I do not believe that since the American colonies sepa- 
rated themselves from the rule of Great Britain by revolutionary 
action the people of this country were ever brought face to face with 
graver questions, needing braver, calmer, more deliberate considera- 
tion, than confront them to-day. It is not simply the question of tha 
existence of that republican form of government Avhich by the Con- 
stitution it is made the duty of the United States to guarantee to 
every State of this Union, and without which Louisiana stands to- 
day. It is even graver, if it be possible, more important than even 
That, for there are governments, of laws not republican in form, in 
wiiich the objects of good government are secured and peace and 
safety given to the inhabitants. But the issue now to be raised be- 
tween the people of the United States and those whom they have 
elected as their rulers is whether this Union of States shall be gov- 
erned by* law or by the mere i>ersonal will of the official ; whether 
we shall have a civil government or a military dictatorship; whether 
we shall have a free government or a despotism. The issue is, if I 
mistake it not, not less grave than this. In the venerable Common- 
wealth of Massachusetts I find Avell stated the object for which, the 
spirit Avith Avhich, these limited governments were created, and their 
charters reduced to writing, so that they should not depend upon the 
feebleness of men's memories, but should he fixed in written charac- 
ters for all time. Said the people of Massachusetts in their Declara- 
tion of Eights, in the fourtli section : 

The people of this Common-n-ealth shall have the sole ami exclusive right of gOA'- 
emiug tluinsLlvcs as a free, sovereign, and intl(])(n(hiit State ; and they shall for- 
ever hcrrafttr exercise and enjoy every power, juiisdiitinn, and right which is not 
or may ndtliereafterbe hy them expressly delegated to the riiited States of Ameu- 
ica in Congress assemhled. 

And in the closing section of their declaration of rights : 

In the govt riiment of this Coniinonwealth the legislative department shall never 
exercise the executive and judicial imwiis, or eitliirof thcui; t lie executive shall 
never exercist; tlu- legislative and judicial poweis, or either nf them ; the judicial 
shall never exercise the legislative and executive powers, or either of them, TO THE 
END THAT IT MAY BE A GDYEKXIIENT OF LAWS, AND XOT OF MEN. 

There is the soul of the declaration of rights upon which the gov- 
ernment of the ancient Commonwealth of Massachusetts stood in 



1779, aucl uuder and subject to which her people have lived to this 
day. 

Mr. President, absolute, uuliniited power is uuknowu to the Amer- 
ican system of government, or to any other system of <;overument> 
preteildino- to be called free. The people of the States and the States 
as inteii'ral parts of tho Federal Union have delegated certain enu- 
merated powers to their rulers, and reserved all otliers exi)ressly iu 
their Avritten charter to the States and to the people. To omit the 
execution of just power is clearly a breach of duty of the Executive, 
and to assume power not delegated is a usurpation quite as danger- 
ous as rebellion and just as promptly to be checked. 

Now, sir, in Avhat spirit should an American Senator approach the 
consideratio!! of a qu(>stion lilce this? Should it not be gravely, 
moderately, restrainedly, and Avithout excitement, discussed ? How 
unlike should it be to the remarks which we have here p)-inted in the 
records of the proceedings of this body, which fell from the honora- 
ble Senator from Indiana, [JMr. :M()GTt)X,] and from his associates from 
Vermont and from Illinois, [Messrs. Edmuxds and Logax,] in which 
every line seems to breathe hatred, to blaze with excitement, to be 
filledwith violent epithets, Avith general arraignment and indictment 
of the Avhole Avhite population of a sister State, so that it seems to 
me their speeches must have been intended to oljscure the real point 
at issue and to envelop the sulyect in a cloud of excitement, to 
awaken anew the bitterness of sectional animosity; and, by sound- 
ing the trumpet of mere party, to draw their hearers away from that 
standard of sworn patriotic duty to support and defend the Cousti- 
tutiou of their Government. I shall not imitate them. My sense of 
indignation is strong, but it is to be silenced by my sense of sorrowful 
apprehension of evil to my country. 

Sir, iu the course of the late dreadful war between the States of 
this Union, I heard of a widowed mother, bereft of husband, of child, 
of property, sitting in tlie midst of her desolation, Avith a bleeding 
heart, who was asked whether she did not hate thoso Avho had thus 
Avrougedher; and her answer was, "My heart is too full of sorroAV, to 
have any room for anger." 

Now, sir, what are the facts of this case? An election on NoA-em- 
ber the 3d A\'as held in Louisiana, as in the other States. It Avas 
conducted with earnestness and some excitement, and yet peace- 
ably — certainly orderly. The entire machinery for conducting and 
supervising that election Avas in the hands of the acting governor of 
the State and his political adherents. The forms of election were 
maintained and they were generally exercised, and the returns were 
Avholly in the hands of " GoA-x^rnor " Kellogg, as he is called, and his ad- 
herents. He committed them to a returning board avIio ke})t them 
in the face of the country, under a pretense of tabulation and count- 
ing, for nearly two months, hudcing I think but two days. Other 
States nearly live or six times as populous found their returns tabu- 
lated and con-ectly counted Avithin less than a Aveek. In most of the 
great cities of the country, containing far more population than the 
Avhole State of Louisiana, forty-eight hours had not elapsed before 
there was a talnilation and count of the votes. But this tabulation 
and counting Avere retarded and delayed by the returning. board, the 
appointees oi Kellogg, for the foul and Avicked purpose declared and 
proA-en by their opponents, forgery proA'eu, the substitution of false 
returns for real returns, the arbitrary rejection of clear testimony iu 
regard to the election ; even a public holiday, the Thanksgiving Day, 
violated for the purpose of breaking open the envelopes and replac- 



6 

ing the true returns by forged ones. All tliese things are not only 
alleged, but proven, and are known to the country. The delay had 
its object, and the object was fraud, and the fraud was j)erpetrated, , 
and in every case where fraud was jjerpctrated it was a fraud against 
the conservative party of the State and in favor of that party known 
as tbe Kellogg party. To that there is no exception ; it stands the 
invariable rule f)f these fraudulent alterations. 

The conservatives were vigilant, they were constant, they were 
courageons; but their apprehensions were but too sadly to be veri- 
fied, and the overwhelming majority of the conservatives in the 
Legislatui'o of the State of Louisiana was nullified, and a small 
majority — I believe of two votes — given to the Kellogg party iu the 
house of representatives by the garbled, false, xiartial returns of this 
board. This was done in the presence of the whole country. Day 
by day the charge was made and proven. The conn try know it. 
No one denied it. The President of the United States was advised of 
it ; he was kept v/ell infoi-med of it, and his semi-official utterances, 
made known to the people, were that, no matter what frauds should 
be accomplished by this board, they should be maintained at every 
cost, or that " somebody should be hurt" in case interference was 
attempted with their nefarious proceedings ; that is to say, if any 
resistance to a clear, ])lain wrong was made by an outraged community. 

On the 4th of January the Legislature of Louisiana, under the consti- 
tution of that State, were to assemble in the State-house iu the city of 
New Orleans; they were to organize their respective bodies. The 
constitution of the State of Louisiana provides in article 34, entitled 
" Of the legislative department," first — 

That the niimher of representatives shall never exceed one hiuidred and twenty 
nor be less than ninety. 

Art. 34. That each house of the General Assembly shall judge of the qualifica- 
tions, election, and ntuins of its members; but a contested election .shall be deter- 
mined in suili niann.T a.s may be jiie.'icribi'd liy law. 

Art. 35. Each housr of till- Ccnrial Assembly may determine the rules of its pro- 
ceedings, punish a mcnibci- for disorilcrly conduct, sind, with a concuiTence of two- 
thirds, expel a member; Init not a second time for tlie same offense. 

Art. 37. Eacli liouse may i)unisli by impri.sonmeut any jierson not a memberfor 
disrespect and disorderly liehavioi- in its jircsence, or for olistructing any of its jiro- 
ceeding.s ; such imijrisoument shall not exceed ten days for any one oti'ense. . 

Such is the language of the constitution of Louisiana. Now, let 
us consider for one instant the value of this right given exclu.sivelj'^ 
to each House to determine the rules for its own proceedings and to 
pass upon the elections, rpialifications, and returns of its own mem- 
bers. Like all things that are of value, it was not reached in a day, 
but its path was a path of difficulty to those Avho achieved it. The 
history of this right, this English-born right of self-government by 
the representatives of the people, is well related in The Law and 
Practice of Legislative Assemblies by Gushing, at section 146: 

The present constitution of the House of Commons is, to a considerable extent, 
tlie resiilt of a series of stiugglcs between it, on the one hand, and the s(.)vereign, or 
the lords, or botli, on tlie otTier. One of the earliest of tluse conflicts, and one of 
the most interesting, is tliat which terminated in the eslaldisliinent of the rii;ht of 
the Commons to lie Die exclusive jud^ics of the returns, elections, anil (junUlica- 
tions of their own members. Tliis rigid, after having been claiineil ami exercised 
atone timeby the king and coumil, at another by the House of Lords, and. aiiaiu, 
by the lord cjiancellor, was deidareil l)y ;i resolnti<in of the (.'omnions, in Iti-Jl, and 
has ever since been admitted to lielong exclusively to the house itself, as " its 
ancient, natural, and nndonblcd piivih-Lic" 

This power is .so essential to the free election and independent existence of a 
legislative assemldy that it may be regarded as a ueces.sary incident to every 
body of thaf discripfion which emanates directly from the]>coj)le: it is also, out of 
abundant caution, conferred upon or guaranteed to most of the legi.slativ&- 
assemblies of the United States by express constitutional provisions. 



In accordance with tins iiilierent I'iylit, incidental to tlie A'cry 
nature of the body, was the constitutional guarantee which, as the 
writer has said, out of plenary caution was introduced into the consti- 
tution of the State of Louisiana. There was a voluntary and orderly 
atteudance of 101 or 102 elected and persons claiming to he members- 
elect of the house of representatives of the Legislature of the State 
of Louisiana on the 4tli day of January instant, more than a cpiorum 
under the constitution of the State. But under what circumstances 
did these representatives of the will of the people of Louisiana assem- 
ble ? In the State-house, not the custom-house or any other United 
States building, but in the house of the State of Louisiana. And in 
whose hands did they lind it? On the evening previous it had been 
garrisoned with what were called the Metropolitan police, the adlier- 
euts and partisans and sole appointees of Kellogg, the acting gov- 
ernor'. Around the house, controlling access to it upon two sides, were 
armed troops of the United States acting in force under the command 
of an officer of the United States under delegated authority from the 
President of the United St.ates. The hiAvful citizens of the State of 
Louisiana w-ere forbidden to approach their State-house. They who 
alone were privileged spectators were forbidden to exercise the high, 
the inherent, the essential iirivilege of witnessing the convention of 
their own State Legislature. There was a member of Congress, well 
known and esteemed by all — I refer to Mr. Potter, of New York, at 
present a member of the investigating committee there — who sought 
in vain as a private citizen of a sister State to approach and witness 
the form of inauguration of the assembly, and was forbidden by armed 
force. 

I consider his rejection an outrage, and unlawful ; but I consider 
that thepooi'est and the meanest citizen of Louisiana had a precedent 
right even over my respected friend to enter the hall and to witness 
the inauguration of the Legislature in whose election ho had cast his 
vote and who were to be the makers of laws under which he should 
live. But until the House committee appointed to make this inves- 
tigation shall return, I will not attempt to recite any disputed or dis- 
putable fact. I shall take facts which are admitted and established, 
and refer to them alone. 

There was an organization of that house. There was a speaker 
elected and placed in his chair. There was a clerk also chosen, and 
this was done in the presence of a quorum of the house of represent- 
atives constitutionally convened, and by the votes of a constitutional 
majority of those present, cjuietly, regularly, and peacefully cast. I 
will not now argue the regularity or the irregularity of the initiation 
of this organization. The Kellogg pai'ty may have been deceived as 
to their numbers, and outwitted by the defection in their own ranks, 
or by the superior parliamentary skill and knowledge of their oi)po- 
nents ; the organization may have been perfectly regular, or it may 
have been in some degree irregular and open to criticism ; but it is 
certain that it was (juiet, that it was peaceful, and unaccompanied by 
anytlu'eat or act of violence on the part of any conservative member. 
When I say that I mean that it was unaccompanied by any show of 
that "domestic A'ioleuce" which is spoken of in the Constitution, 
which gives the President of the United States the right to interfere, 
and there was no pretext for the existence of anything capable of 
being termed " violence" on the part of the one hundred and one mem- 
bers of the Legislature so convened. On the contrary, Mr. President, 
there was a dignity far removed from violence ; there was a courage 
far different from bluster, which Avould have become a Roman senate 



8 

even in the presence of some barbarian liorde. It is said that even a 
rude Goth at the head of his forces was impelled to yield involuntary 
respect to the aged and unarmed men of the Roman senate who wit- 
nessed in their placid dignity the invasion of their council chamber; 
but it seems that an officer of the Army of the United States is un- 
touched by any such restraining influences, and knows no law of 
restraint but the will of his superior officer, no matter what may be 
the outrage upon the rights of his fellow-citizens, or the lawsaud 
the Constitution of his country, which he may have been ruthlessly 
ordered to commit. 

The house of representatives of Louisiana was on the 4th of this 
present month purged of five members who were in their official 
seats, quietly and peaceably filling their places in that body, having 
been admitted and sworn into office by the only competent body to 
admit them or pass upon their qTialifications. They were purged just 
as in 1CA8 oiie Colonel Pride, with his two regiments, purged the 
house of Parliament at the order of a Cromwell : seized forty-one 
members, displaced them by force, excluded one himdred and sixty 
others, and thus he constituted that fag-end of a government that 
has come down hissed by posterity as the "rump" of a parliament, 
and which lived its Avretched and disgraceful career five short years, 
until the hand of the master that had constituted it drove it with 
shame from the place where his power alone had placed it. Sii', does 
not history repeat itself, and will men be forever deaf to its lessons 
until they bum themselves in by painful experience '' 

Mr. President, I ask the Senate, I ask the American people, had 
President Grant the legal warrant for interference by troops at that 
time, in that manner, at that place ? Had Governor Kellogg the 
power himself to do it ? Had he the lawful power to call upon the 
President or any other i)erson to interfere as was done on that day ? 
Where is the law, where is the constitutional provision from which 
such right can be implied, however remotely or indirectly f There 
has been none yet cited, and I make bold here to-day to say that this 
debate will begin and it will close, and there will be no lawyer, as I 
believe, of this body who will be able to produce the statute or even 
attempt to twist or force the construction of words that will give any 
warrant for this act. 

There stands the constitution of the State of Louisiana, the provis- 
ions of which I have read. There stands the Constitution of the 
United States, containing its enumerated and delegated powers to 
the President as to all other departments of this Government. Where 
do we see them now ? Overthrown and cast down by the furious 
lawlessness, by the unlawful ambition, of these two officials Avliom I 
have named, the creature and the creator. Look at it, Senators! 
Loolv at it, people of the United States! Contemplate the picture of 
that dispersed Assemldj- ; read the protest of the peaceable and or- 
derly men ejected by brute force from their lawful places in that As- 
sembly, and then say whether iiarty passion or sectional prejudice can 
constrain you to approve it, or i)revent you from grave and deliberate 
condemnation of the act, and of those who have committed it. 

But, Mr. President, such coi'.duct is, I am sorry to say, not new in 
Louisiana. It is but a leaf out of the book of the sad story of that 
State. Two years ago it was under pretended forms of law, that 
only made the fact more loathsome, bj' mingling more fraud with 
force. The act to-day is more bare-faced, and in that I think there 
may be some security to my fellow-countrymen. 

I will take leave, not in egotism but in justification of what I say 





to-dny, to road sr)mc remarks v.'liicli I made in the Senate on the 27th 
of Felnuary. 1-^T:>, at the hour of six o'clock in the morning, when I 
and others' had been kept here in weary and fruitless deljate upon 
some bill relating to the State of Louisiana unauthorized, as I believe 
utterly unauthorized, by the Federal Constitution. I said then : 

I believe it is never vrise to Ijliuk the truth. I believe it is never wise iu goveni- 
iun- a people in any wav to deceive tliem, or to rule them by false promises. And 
here 1 state to tli'e Senate and the countrv that I believe these suvennncuts "so 
called '' iu the Southern States are but tbin veils for actual military p(n\er iu the 
hands of the Federal Administration. Those sovernmeuts are permitted to exist so 
louo- as they please "the powers that be." So long as they prouounre the sliibbo- 
letlfof your party, so long and no longer those who represent the go\eruiiients will 
be protected, but it is intended to overshadow them from time to time by the hand 
of Federal power, so that they may be taught that unless they do conduct them- 
selves aecordins to the will of 'their real masters, not even the form.s of republican 
o-overnnuut .--hall exist, It matters not whether the end is reached by Durell and 
his preteudeii ■■ indicial " orders, or Casey with his Gatlin guns or revenue-cutters, 
or Attoruey-(.;e!icral Williams with his "fu.sion " suggestions, or swarms of United 
States mar'slials and their deputies to enforce congressional election laws— all are 
part and parcel of the scheme and system of that coercive power which is the real 
goveiiiuieut of this country. . 

Sir if the President of the United States shall proclaim martial law in Louisiana, 
if he shall talLf possession of that State, he will only be doing openly what his 
party in fact liave l)een doing for the iastsix or seven j-ears under the thin veil and 
llimsvdis'<uise of h'^al forms. There has not been a time when troops have not 
either act"iially limn- there or have been threatened to be sent there. l>!"o one can 
doubt tliat Jiiikf Dnivll would never have dared to issue this order, nor would any 
one havethouoht of obeviug it, if there had not been an intimation to him that 
the power of tlie Federal Army wouldbacli him up and would sustain the faction 
that he was creating under the name of a government. I do not doul>t it. 1 do 
not think the people of this country can doubt it ; at any rate, I say here in my 
place to them I believe it to bo true', and I think the facts warrant the belief. 

Therefore, sir, believina' at any time that I would rather know my fate, and I 
trust 1 will never be afraid to look my fate in the face, I do feel that our Govern- 
ment is pnssinn awav from us because, we are losing the disposition and the means 
of cuforcin»- thus- limitations upon the powers of those who rule us, and they are 
disrt>"ardinu them. That which is the law for Louisiana to-day may be made the 
law iZr Penusvlvania or Xew York to-inorrow. It has been threatened in New 
York ; it has been carried almost to the same point iu New York ; her peaceful 
streets have been tilled with Federal troop,s on the occasion of popular election ; 
her waters and her docks have held armed vessels ready t'> luiil destruction upon 
her citizens and their property. Those things have been witnessed I>y the Ameri- 
can people, but their meaning seems to have been but faintly understood ; audnow 
I would say to the people of every other State, " Read in the fate of Louisiana to- 
day what well may be your own when the necessities of party shall call upon those 
ill power to make it so." 

I know that I say this at the commencement of a new lease of power of the 
republican party, when we are to have four more years of government probably by 
the same Executive, possibly by the same Congress as heretofore; and yet, never- 
theless, the time must come when the people" of this country shall again express 
their will, and all that I can do is to tell them the truth as I see it, and then if it 
be my fate to stand in the minority, that will not the least silence my voice ; that 
will iiot the least change luy ardent aspirations to serve my fellow-men, and I shall 
warn them, as I warn them now, of the daggers I apprehend, and indicate the 
XU-oper modes of meeting them. 

Such, sir, were my views expressed here in open debate, nearly two 
vears ago. Again, when this subject vras up on the "iOth of April, 1^74, 
i stated the fact that— 

Under the thin veil of a pretended republican form of government, the real govern- 
ment of Louisiana to-day is militarv force. It is a sbam'to call it anything eise. You 
lift tlie gown of the jiidire, and you tind the saber of the dragoon ; you enter the ex- 
ecutive chamber, and the power there is the power of the sword and not of the law. 
The government of Louisiana to-day is nothing but military power, protecting dis- 
honest men who v>"ear the sham robes of State office. 

Mr. President, has this policy ou tlie part of the President been 
changed ? Reading by the events of to-day this ineffectual debate 
of mine nearly two vears old, wlio shall challenge the truth of those 



10 

utterances ? Tliey were sincerely made ; tliey have been confirmed by 
time, the irrefutable register of truth. What has been the policy of 
the President of the United States f Has it been moderated or mod- 
ified? Nay, sir, it has only been doggedly intensified. There is not 
ijti that State one case of abuse of ])ower, of ])eculation, robbery, and 
filthy dishonesty, with which the history of its government is filled 
in the last two years, in which his displeasure has ever been signified 
by the removal of an improper official, not one word of rebuke. On 
the contrary, there has been personal and official encouragement of 
men who stand liefore the nation branded as dishonest and unworthy, 
and whom no man would trust with his i)rivate affairs or give power 
to in matters affecting himself in any way. 

lu the midst of this excitement, in the midst of this blow at the very 
heart of poi)nlar government, who has he selected to preside over the 
affairs of that State? Lieuteuant-General Philip Sheridan, sent by 
him to New Orleans secretly, not by public order known to the people. 
He is sent down to dragoon thex)eople of Louisiana into slavish, fear- 
ful, cringing, un-x\.mericau obedience to his will and pleasure. Ho 
arrives tbere only three days before the assembling of the Legislature. 
He sees none of those who have the welfare of the community at heart. 
From Kellogg and his adherents, the men who have brought this 
trouble and sorrow upon the State by their own corrupt and selfish 
ambition, he takes his account. They inform him, they inspire him, 
and from the recesses of his pocket he suddenly produces the authority 
and "assumes the command of that military district," over winch there 
was already a competent commander regularly and piiblicly assigned. 
Instantly, without other public order, that commander is sui>erseded, 
other officers both higher and lower in rank than General Sheiidan are 
passed by, and he is personally selected to undertake the task of unlaw- 
ful interference with the free government of a sovereign State of this 
Union. 

Now, it is not my purpose in any degree to detract from whatever 
of renown may have rested upon the brow of this ofticer. I would 
be incompetent to criticise his military career, and that is all I be- 
lieve that he has. It is a career of force, a career of vigor, a career 
of rough war, of which I know but little, and therefore am incompe- 
tent to criticise him as to that resiK'ct. But, sii", I also know that he 
is an officer of the Army of the Ilnited States, that he is fed and 
clothed by the people of the United States, and that he is the serv- 
ant of those peoi)le, and not in any just sense their master; that he 
received the military education that has enabled him to bi'come so 
eminent at Iho national academy and iit public cost. TIk^ Constitu- 
tion of the United States is still a text-book of that institution. It 
was a text-book when this officer received his graduation; and yet 
it seems to me that while he nmst have read it, while he must have 
known that his connnissiou as an Army officer took its roots in the 
principles of civil liberty Avhich that Constitution was intened to se- 
cure, yet he has forgotten almost its first and most necessary instruc- 
tions. Sir, has he not forgotten that, "a well-regulated militia being 
necessary to the security of a free State, tlie right of the ]ieoplo to 
keep and bear arms shall not Iw. infringedf " Has he not forgotten 
that '"the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, 
liapers, and efTects against unreasonable searches and seizuics shall 
not be violated?" That "no person shall bo held to answer for a 
capital or otherwise infamous ci'iine unless on a presentment or in- 
<Ii(tment of a grand Jury, exce])t in cases arising in the land or naval 
forces, or in the militia when in actual service in time of war or pub- 



11 

lie dnnger?" Nor tlmt any iktsou shall he " ilojirived of life, liberty, 
or property witliout ilue process (»t' laAv?" That "in all criuiinal 
prosecutions the accnsed sliall I'lijoy the right to a speedy and pnblic 
trial by an impartial .jury of tlie State and district Avherein the crime 
shall liave been committed, which district shall have been previously 
ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of 
the accusation, to Ite confronted with the witnesses against him, to 
have compulsory process for obtaining witnessi'S in his favor, and to 
have the assistance of counsel for his defense?" 

Sir, if these things were read l)y that officer, surely he must have 
forgotten them, or'else has the more guilty audacity to ride rough- 
shod over them. If he has forgotten, let him now be taught anew. 
Let us see who is the stronger. The issue cannot come too soon. If 
this cavalry officer, with whatever renown he may have gained with 
his bloody sword, shall be stronger than these guarantees of personal 
liberty which we supposed were secui'ed to us, let ns know it now. 
We Ciiunot have tlie issue raised too soon or too distinctly decided. 

Now, sir, I ask the Senate and the country to listen to the tone of 
this officer and see, when yon have read his dispatches to the Admin- 
istration here, who shall say he is even iit to breathe the air of a 
republican goverinuent. I Ixdieve this officer reached New Orleans 
about the 1st of January, and on the 4th of January he telegraphed 
to the Secretary of War, Hon. W. W. Belknap, as follows : 

Headquaktehs Milmaky Division of Missouri, 

Xcw Orleans, January 4. 
Hon. W. W. Belknap, 

Secretary of War, Washington, D. C. 
It is with deep regret that I have to announce to you the existence in thi.s State 
of a spirit of defiance to all lawful aTithority and an insecurity of life which is 
liardly realized by tlic General Government or country at large. The lives of 
citizens have becoiii" so jiii|i;u-diz(il tliat unless something is done to give xn'otection 
to the people all scnu ity usually iitliird.'d by law will be overridden. Defiance to 
laws and murder of ijidividuals scnu to \h: looked upon by the community here fi'om 
a stand-point which >;iv>s iinimuity tn all who choose to indulge in eitlier ; and the 
civil goveriinient appears imweilcss fd punish, or even arrest. I have to-night 
assumed control over the Deiiartment of the Gulf. 

P. H. SHERIDAX, 

Jjieutcnant-General. 

" Assumed control over the Department of the Gulf ! " H(U-e is 
then from the hand of tliis mere soldier, military in instinct and in 
education, and ignorant of civil right or law, the cool complacence 
of ignorance, that he could do that of which even the great mind 
of the most philosophic statesman and lawyer of modern times de- 
clared himself incapable. Burke declared he could not draw an 
indictment against a whole jieople ; but it seems that — 
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. 

Mr. Sheridan can indict par entire community and declare this 
wholesale destruction of their moral character npon three nights' 
acquaintance in one city of a large State. Mr. President, there have 
been replies to this, made npon the instant these telegrams were 
published. 

At a meeting of the Merchants' Exchange, largely attended, the 
following series of resolutions were unanimously adopted : 

Be it resolved. That we condemn as a po.sitive untruth and as a libel upon tho 
community the statement of General Sheridan, contained in the above ; that we 
deny herewith that tin- s])ivit (d' detiauc e against lawful authority exists and that 
the lives of citizens have lM-c(im<'.iei>]iardi/,('d thereby. 

Resolved, That we emi>haticallv coudrmn, as law-abiding citizens, and do most 
solemnly and earnestly ]:viiti'.st against ihe niilitaiy interlercucc with and the dis- 
organization of the Legislature of Louisiana, which was duly elected by ourselves 
and the citizens of the State. 



12 

The board of underwriters met aud passed similar I'esoliitions, de- 
nouncing as utterly untrue and unwarranted these assertions of the 
Lieutenant-General. The Cotton Exchange, on the same day, had a 
full meeting, and adopted the following unanimously: 

Whereas General P. H. Sheridan, commanding the Military Division of Mis-, 
soiiri, has seen fit to address to the liouoiahle Secretary of War a letter, dated Jan - 
nary 4, and puldishcd in our jiapiis of tliis date, in wliioh lie lias ^iveu utterance to 
statements rrllcctiiin uikhi tlie in-ojile of this State, aii<l paitieulaily of such as re- 
side in this eity, siiiL;ulaily at vaiiaiii-e with the eniiditioii of tliiiiiis now and liere- 
tofore existiiin' in this city" and State, and widl eahTilated not only to detract from 
our good iiaiur as law-loving and law-ahiding (•itiz( as, Ijut also to seriously injure 
the coinnicicial intcnsts of our city, the Cottim Exchange, an orgauizatioi'i totally 
disconnected from political atiairs, and instituted solely for the promotion /sf com- 
mercial interests, feels called upon to enter a solemn protest against the allegations 
contained in said letter. 

Tlie memliers of this exchange give solemn assurance to the peojde of the TTuited 
States and tci the friends of truth and Jnstici' wherever found, that the allegations 
of General Sheridan are not only false in jxiiiit of fact, hut evince the spirit of a 
mere ])artisan rather than the liohility of a sonl which sliould characterize the 
ntterances iif an otKcer commanding the army of a great nation. It is painfully 
evident that, coming among us an almost entire .stranger, General Sheridan has 
limited liis inquiries into the condition id' atiairs here to those whose interests it 
is not only to fiUsify facts hut to promote that sjiirit of hiwles-sness with which we 
are falsely char,oed. It would not indee<l he a matter of surprise if crimes in our 
midst v. ere more frequent, when it is home in mind that the police force, for the 
maintenance of which we arelieavily taxed, is now. and lias been, diverted from its 
legitimate duties to such an extent that large districts of our city are entirely with- 
oiit jHOtection, and many of our citizens are compelled to employ private Vatch- 
men for protection agaiu.st thieves aud burglars. 

Then came an address from the committee of seventy citizens of 
New Orleans, gentlemen of standing and character, the meanest man 
among them the ijeer in all respects of this officer of the United 
States Army who has slandered them, in which they protest against 
his calumnious statements, and call upon the i)eople of their State to 
exercise more of heroism and patience and forbearance, which will 
arouse the symi^athies of the entire country in their behalf ; aud God 
grant it may. 

Then comes an appeal of the clergy of New Orleans to the Ameri- 
can people. 
To the American people: 

Whereas General Sheridan, now in command of the Division of the Missouri, 
under the date of the 4th instant, has addressed a communication to Hon. W. W. Bel- 
kmii>. Secretary of War, in which he re]iiesciits the peojile of Louisiana at large as 
breathing vengeance to all lawful authority and apiiroving of murders andcriines: 
We, the undersigned, believe it our duty to proclaim to the whole American people 
that till se cliai'gts are unmerited, itnfouuded, and erroneous, and can have no 
other ethct tlian that of serviugtlie interests of corrupt ])oliticiaus, who are at this 
moment making the most extreme eft'orts to perpetuate their power over the State 
of Louisiana. 

K". J. DEECHE, 

Archbishop of Neiv Orleans. 
J. P. B. WILMEK, 

Bishop of Louisiana. 
JAMES K. GUTHERIM, 

Pastor Temple of Sinai. 
J. C. KEENER, 

Bishop M. E. Church South. 
C. DOLL, 
Ecctor St. Josci^h'n Church. (And many others.) 

Then again in to-day's paper there is a protest from other divines, 
the Bishop of Little Kock and others. In another dispatch of Gen- 
eral Sheridan, which I have not yet read, he goes further and ar- 
raigns not only the people of New Orleans, Louisiana, but the entire 
communities of three States, in none of which does it appear he has 
been except for the period of three days at the city of New Orleans. 



13 

Let me now read further. On the otii of January he telegraphs 
the Secretary of ^Yar at Washington : 

HEADQUAKTEKS of the MiLITAliY Dl\nsION OF ^iflSSOURI, 

New Orleans, Louisiana, January 5, 1875. 
Hon. W. W. Bei.kxap, 

Secretary of War, Washington, D. C. : 
I think the terrorism now existina: in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas could 
he entirely removed and confidence and fair dealmg e.stahlishi'd l>y the ancst and 
trial of tie ringleaders of the armed White Leagues. If Coiignss would pa.ss a 
hill declaring them banditti, they could be tried by a military eoiniiiis.sion. This 
banditti, who murdered men here on the 14th of last Septenil>er, also iiiorc recently 
at Vicksburgh, iMississipjii, should, in justice to law and order autl tlif iieace and 
prosperity of this southern part of tlie country, be punished. It is pdssilile that 
if the President would issue a proclamation declaring them banditti, no further 
action need be taken except that which would devolve upon me. 

P. H. SnERLDAN, 
Lieufenant-General United States Army. 

Ah, Mr. President, if there was the tone that under other adminis- 
trations animated the Exeeutivc of this country, he would never 
sign his name again as Lieutenant-General of the United States Army. 
Is this the language of an American oflicer toward his fellow-coun- 
trymen ? Why, sir, if he were in a hostile country among the sick and 
wretched Piegan Indians, had he been in the service of Mexico, there 
could not have been a more ruthless, a darker, or more bloody threat 
than is contained iu the closing lines of this dispatch to the Secretary 
of War. This is language relatiug to the citizens of three States of 
this IJuion. Is it the'langnage that is due from an officer of the Army 
of the United States, wearing that honorable uniform, the protector, 
the guard, the glory of his people, without destiuction of party ; or 
is it not the language of some captain of a band of janizaries, asking 
orders from an oriental despot iu regard to his ruthless extermination 
of those whom he may deem the foes of power ? This man, educated 
with one of his text-books the Constitution of Iiis country, asks that 
Congress shall pass an ex jwst facto law, making that a crime which 
wasnot a crime at the time of the commission of the alleged ofteu.se, 
and creating new punishments to make the penalty still more severe. 
He asks for military commissious, in these times of peace, to try men 
neither iu the land iior naval service of the United States. He asks 
for drum-head court-martials to try citizeus over whom there is no 
pretense that the authority of the Army or of the 'Navj is extended. 
What is the dark and bloody threat at the clo.se of his dispatch, for 
Senators ? What did he mean when he asked the President to issue 
a proclamation declaring these citizens banditti, and that then no 
further action need be taken excejjt that which wonld devolve iqwn him? 

I confess to you as I read this dispatch my blood curdled in my 
veins. If it had been sent in the midst of strife by a man heated by 
the excitement of combat, there might have been palliation for it, 
because a cooling time would have come when his better reason would 
oiierate, when "Philip sober" would have answered this "Philip 
drunk." But this dispatch was penned in safety ; it was penned in 
quiet ; it was penned where there was nothing that threatened him, 
and without anything to cause him excitement except the appre- 
hended loss of political power to the chief whom he was sent there 
to represent. 

What character does this officer .seek to assume ? There was Tristan 
I'Hermite, the provost-marshal of the royal household, whom tho 
genius of Scott has painted until he is familiar in every household. 
It seems to me that this ofticer has modeled himself much upon the 
morals and conduct of this hauginau of royalty of days gone hj. 



14 

Sir, I say that in a proper condition of sentiment with those iu 
power he would not have been suftered to remain for live minutes in 
command at New Orleans. He has no one quality that tits him prop- 
erly for the duties of command there now. His hrst requisite should 
be good-will and kindness to the people, strict impartiality ; no 
threats of force, careful obedience to civil rule. This was the ex- 
ample he should have set as a high official, lionored by his country, 
iiud invested with high discretionary powers ; and, as this example 
does not seem to originate with him, I want it now taught him, and 
taught so that not alone he will not forget, but that every other offi- 
cer of the Army and Navy of the United States will h^arn and know 
that it is in the att'ections, in the respect of their fellow-countrymen, 
and not in their fears, that they are to lind their place of honor and 
of safety. 

Sir, I said he has cruelly maligned these populations among whom 
he has gone, and I have allowed th6m in their own way to answer 
him, not beginning to recite the numerous protests that have fol- 
lowed his false and calumnious charges against them. Sir, it is per- 
fectly shocking, and I think a civilized Avorld everywhere must be 
deeply shocked when such dispatches are read. We have talked 
about the Kussian rule in Poland and have held it uj) as an abhor- 
rent example of cruelty ; but what dispatch ever sent to a Russian 
Czar exceeded in remorseless savagery the closing lines of the dis- 
patch of General Sheridan on the 5th of January to Belknap, Secre- 
tary of War ? I wish it ended there, I wish it ended with him ; but 
alas! alas! here we find on the 7tli of January the Secretary of War 
answering in the following phrase : 

Tour telegrams all received. The President and all of lis liave full coufideuce 
and thorouglily approve your course. 

I know not how fitly to designate sucli a communication, except to 
say that every expression of disgust, of horror, of antagonism that I 
have expressed toward the action of General Sheridan in his dis- 
patches is rather increased toward those who could pen or concur in 
such an answer as that. The American people must answer it. 
They must answer it from their hearts, and I believe there is after 
all in the human heart such a response to kindness, such a natural 
love of justice, that they will repudiate Mr. Belknap " and all of us " 
to whom he so loosely and generally refers, should they undertake to 
indorse the action of General Sheridan in New Orleans and his dis- 
patches to the Department of War. 

Mr. President, in 1860 the Supreme Court of the United States 
found it necessary to pass upon the questions now raised by General 
Sheridan and iiroposed to be applied, not one year after the close of 
an excited, a dreadful, and extensive civil war, but ten long years 
after the war has gone by, and the hearts and hands of the American 
people have come once more together — are proposed to be applied bj'- 
him not even as. a law, but under the simple, arbitrary fiat of the 
President of the United States. Said this court in considering the 
case of Milligan, who had been tried, who had been condemned and 
all but executed by a military commission in the State of Indiana : 

The coiitiiillina qm-stinii m the case is this: Upon the facts stated in jSIilligau's 
petition and tlie <'xliiliits fih'd, liad the military conmiission nioiitioncd power 
m its jurisdiction legally to try and sentence liini'; oMilHuan, not a resilient of one 
of tlie rebillious States or a ]iiisoner of war, hut a citizi'u of Indiana for twenty 
years ]iast. and never in the military (u- naval service, is, while at his home, arrestejl 
h\ the military power of the United States, imprisoned, ami, on certain criminal 
diaries preferred against him, tried, convicted, and seutenced to bs banged by 
ji military commission organized under the direction of the military commander 



15 

tho military district of ludiaua. Had this tril)imal tlie legal power and author- 
ity to trv and" punish this man ? 

"Ko siaver (juestiou was ever considered by this court, nor one whicli more nearly 
concerns the rights of the whole people, for'it is the birthright of every American 
citizen when charged with crime to be tried and punished according to law. The 
power of ])uiuslnircnt is alone tlnouuh the means which the laws have pi'ovided for 
that purpose; and if thev an' iiifdrcfual, there is an rmmnnity from punishment, no 
matter how nVi'at an otieuder tin- individual may be, or how much his ciimes may 
have sliocl«'d tlie sense of justice iif the country or endangered its safety. By the 
protection of the law human rights are secured ; withdraw that protectiou, and they 
are at the mercy of wicked rulers or the clamor of an ix'ib d people. If there was 
law to justify this militaiv trial, it is not ourprovince to iut<'rtVre ; if there was not, 
it is our dnty to declare the uiillity of the whole proceedings. The decision of this 
question does not depend ouar^ument or judicial ]irfcedeuts, numerous and highly 
illustrative as they are. ThesepreeeileTitsiiiForm us of the exteutof thi^ struggle to 
ju'eserve liberty aiid to relii've those in civil lite from military trials. The fouiiders 
of ourgovernnient were familiar with the history of tliat struggle, and secured in 
a written Constitutiou every right which the i>eople had wiest«-d from ]>ower dur- 
inga contest of ai;es. By tliat Con.stitutiouaud tlie laws authorized by it thisques- 
tion nuist be determined. The provisions of tliat instrument on the admini.stra- 
tionof criminal justice are too plain and diri-ct to leave room for misconstruction 
or doubt of their true meaning. Those aiiiilicable to this case are found in that 
clause of the original Constitution whicli says " that the trial of all crimes, ex- 
cept in case of impeachment, shall be liy jury : " and in the fourth, fifth, and sixth 
articles of the ameiulments. The fourth proclaims the right to be secure in per- 
son and etfects against unreasoiKible search and seizure, and directs that a judi- 
cial warrant shall not i.ssue " withorit proof of probable cause, supjiorted by oath 
or allirmation.'' The fifth declares " that no person shall be held to answer for a 
capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on presentnunit by a grandjury, except 
in cases arisiiei in the land or naval forces or in the militia when in actual service 
in time of warmer imblie danger, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or propi.-rty with- 
oitt due process of law." 

The court proceed to recite the aitieiidmeuts, which I have read iu 
full before, to secure the personal liberty of the citizen : 

These securities for personal lil>erty thus embodied were such as wisdom and expe- 
rience have demonstrated to be necessary for the protection of those accused of 
crime. And so strong was the sense of the cmntry of their importance, ami so jeal- 
ous were the people that tliese rights, Inglily ])rized, might be denied them byimi)li- 
cation, that when the original Constitution was jn-oposed for adoption it encountered 
severe opposition ; and but for the belief that it would be so amended as to embrace 
them, it would never have been ratified. 

Time has proven the tliscernment of our ancestors ; for even these provisions, ex- 
pressed iu such plain English words that it would seem the ingenuity of man could 
not evade them, are no wj' after the lapse of more than seventy years, sought to be 
avoided. Those great and good men foresaw that troublous times would arise, 
when rulers and people would become restive under restraint, and seek by sharp 
and decisive measures to accomplish ends deemed just and proper, ami that the 
principles of constitutional liberty would be in peril, unless established by irrepeal- 
able law. The history of the world had taught them that what was done iu the past 
might be attempted iu the future. 

K'o doctrine involving more pernicious cotisequences was ever invented by the 
-svit of man than that any of its provisions can be suspended during any of the gTeat 
exigencies of government. Such a doctrine leads directly to anarchy or despot- 
ism ; but the theory of neces.sity on which it is based is false ; for the Government, 
within the Constitution, has all the powers granted to it which are necessary to 
preserve its existence, as has been happily jiroved by the result of the great efiort 
to throw otf its just authority. 

Ou the follovring jjago — 

It is claimed that martial law covers with its broad mantle the proceedings of 
this military commission. 

That is what this officer desires the President of the United States 
to proclaim, thinking that a proclamation by the President will be a 
carte blanclw to him to steep his hands in the blood of his fellow-citi- 
zens in that city. 

It is claimed that martial law covers with its broad mantle the proceedings of 
this military conunission. The proposition is this : That in a time of war the com- 
mander of an armed force, (if in his opinion the exigencies of the country demand 



IG 

it, and of -wliicli he is to jud"-e,) has the powiT, -within the lines of his military dis- 
trict, to suspend all civil rights and their remedies, and subject citizens as well as 
soldiers to the rule of his will ; and in the exercise of his lawful authority cannot 
be restrained, except by his superior officer or the President of the United States. 

If this position is sound to the extent claimed, then, when war exists, foreign or 
domestic, and the country is subdivided into military departments for mere conve- 
nience, the commander of one of them can, if he chooses, within his limits, on the 
plea of necessity, with the approval of the Executive, substitute military force for 
and to the exclusion of the laws, and punish all persons as he thinks right and 
proper, without fixed or certain rules. 

The statement of this proposition shows its importance ; for, if true, republican 
government is a failure, and there is an end of liberty regulated by law. (4 ■Wal- 
lace's Reports.) 

I will not apoloojize for the length of the extract I have read,- 
becaiise these truths are of cardinal importance at this crisis of 
aifairs, and, being gravely enunciated by this liigh tribunal, should 
have influence upon every man withiu this Chamber, as well as every 
citizen in the United States. 

It was my duty three years ago, as a member of a committee of this 
body, to investigate the condition of affairs in the State of North 
Carolina, to spend with my associates two or three months in taking 
testimony, and then we submitted rej)orts upon it. Unable to con- 
cur in the report of the majority, the minority, consisting of myself 
and one of the most gallant soldiers of the late war, (Senator F. P. 
Blair, of Missouri,) presented their views. At the time this minority 
report was made Ave closed, it with a quotation from an eminent 
statesman, to which exception was taken under a misunderstanding 
by my friend from Pennsylvania, [Mr. ScOTT,] and I remember his 
reading it as though under an idea that it was meant to be descrip- 
tive of himself in any degree. The proposition was abstract and most 
true, in regard to the effect upon men's character and nature of con- 
tinued acts of violence and oppression. I read this extract from our 
former report, becau.se its truth has been vindicated by what has since 
occurred, and is vindicated still more to-day by the example which 
this correspondence of a lieutenant-general of the Army and the War 
Department has afforded to us and to the American people. "We there 
stated in regard to the case of North Carolina — 

This is the truth in a nutshell ; that Holden and his official supporters have 
failed to maintain themselves by any means, foul as well as fair, in their State. 
They have appealed to popular election, and have been rejected with something 
near nnanimity by every tax-|)ayer in the State ; and 7iow Congress is asked to 
step in and force North Carolina down again under the feet of Iut radical masters ; 
and we fear that Congress will attem])t to do tliis unwise and wicked thing. Will 
the people of the North (free as ytt) see this thing done and sustain its promoters ? 
We hope not; we pray not. When will the men now in power learn the truth of 
what the gTeat statesman of tlic last century said so wisely and well, when similar 
attempts were made to govern Biitish India? 

"It is the nature of tyranny and rapacity never to learn moderation from the ill 
success of first oppressions. On tlie contrary, all men thinking highly of the 
methods dictated by their nature attribute the frustration of their desires to the 
want of sutlieient rigor. Then they rcdoul)lf the efforts of tlieir impotent cruelty, 
which prddncing, as they mu.st produce, new disai)p(iitituients, they grow irritated 
against the objects of their rapacity ; and their iai;e. fury, and malice (implacable 
because unprovoked) recruiting and re-enforcing tlieir avarice, their vices are no 
longer human. From cruel men they are traustoi iu<>d into savage beasts, with no 
other vestiges of reason left hut what serves to furnish the inventions and leflue- 
ments of fei-ocions subtlety for i)ui-j)oses of which beasts are incapable and at 
which fiends would blush."' 

Sir, is it not true that the legislation of Congress was cruel and 
severe ; and in what did it result, and what have we to-day in Louisi- 
ana? The Senator from Indiana [Mr. ^Morton] to-day has rather 
improved upon his well-know)i powers of denunciation in regard to 
those communities. There is even more often repeated the savage 



17 

and relentless epitbets of murder, and of blood, and of assassins with 
which he Bas sought to stain the names of those people. He has 
progressed and intensified it ; and no such ruthless instrument has 
apparently yet responded as he who has responded last. General 
Sheridan is more cruel tlian those who have preceded him ; ho is more 
ruthless, and he holds out to his fellow-countrymen murderous threats 
which are disgraceful to the cloth he wears and to the country of 
which he is a citizen. 

Mr. President, I desire to say to the i)eoplo of this country and to 
the Senate that the proposition is now here presented for the first 
time that the President of the United States can, of his own motion 
and in his own discretion, adjudge the fact that such " domestic vio- 
lence" at any time exists within a State as to authorize him, either 
by his powers as President or by power delegated to him by the gov- 
ernor of that State, to interfere in the organization of a State Legis- 
lature. This is the proposition. The power is as secure under the 
constitution of the State to the Legislature to judge of the qualifi- 
cations, returns, and election of its own members as it is to either 
House of the Congress of the United States. One is as equally essen- 
tial to the continiiance of our form of government as the other. The Leg- 
islature of Louisiana have as nmch rightful power to pass upon the 
qualifications of members of this body or of the other House of Con- 
gress as have both these Houses of Congress to pass upon the qualifi- 
cations of members of that Legislature. The same frame of words is 
used to secure the separate rights and powers of each. If one cannot 
protect itself by the respect due to established law, neither can the 
other. If lawless physical force shall be ijexraitted to overthrow the 
rights of one, it can also overthrow the other. In either case it is a 
question of degree alone. 

I do not embark iipon any sea of defense of the southern people 
against these widespread vague calumnies. I only wish to bring 
the American people to consider this point : If you admit such a 
power as this to be exercised in the discretion of the President, then 
X^ursue it plainly to its ultimate and logical results. It is Louisiana 
to-day; it may be New York to-morrow; it may be Massachusetts 
the day following ; it may be in the Congress of the United States 
on the 4th day of March next. Why did General Grant send his 
troops and exercise their lawless power within the Legislature of 
Louisiana by compelling members as old, as grave, as learned, as 
respectable as him who occupies the chair of the Senate to-day to 
leave their x^laces? Pretense of " domestic violence " by five elderly 
and respectable gentlemen, unarmed, in the midst of Kellogg's myr- 
midons and a brigade of United States troops! It is a farce to say 
that those five men were creating " domestic violence " which author- 
ized armed intervention by the President. Did the constitution of 
Louisiana give Kellogg a right to interfere in the organization of the 
Legislature ? Just such as it gave to President Grant, and no more. 
Either was a lawless intruder, and nothing but the helplessness of 
the Legislature prevented them fi-om lawfully imprisoning every 
officer and soldier Avho interfered with their proceedings. It was not 
the absence of right, but the feheer want of iihysical power to enforce it. 

Mr. President, if the President can do this with two regiments of 
troops, then a single brigade will suflice to accomplish the same 
thing in this Capitol on the 4th of next March. There is no physi- 
cal ijower in Congress successfully to resist such physical force. 
There are some seventy-four members in this body, and less than 
three hundred members of the other house. The same proportion of 
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18 

troops would be required, aud a single brigade can take charge of 
this Capitol, shut off the entrance of the people, let in those Avhom 
they see fit, aud give certificates to the Clerk of the present House 
of Kepresentatives, Avho shall exchide all others. All that can be 
done, provided the physical power of the Congress of the United 
States is all that stands in the way. But, Mr. President, that is not 
all that stands in the way. The American people stand in the way, 
and so they should, and so I believe they will overwhelmingly, when 
they come to comprehend this case of Louisiana, freed from the 
clamor of partisans, stand in the way of this outrage upon the rights 
of a single State, in which you liave but to change the name and 
you can apply the doctrine to everj' one of the remaining thirty-six. 

We have had the question here before now as to whether, even 
when we come to pass upon election returns aud qualifications of 
members of this body, we can imdertake to determine the qualifica- 
tions of the constituent bodies which elected them. It has always 
been denied; and yet here we have decided, even where the Constitu- 
tion gives to each House of Congress the right to examine into those 
retm-ns, that you must pause upon the threshold of a State Legisla- 
ture and not venture to pursue your inquiry as to the election and 
qualifications of its members. The violation of principles, in my 
opinion, will always return to plague those who invented it ; aiid'I 
here to-day in my place most solemnly wain my countrymen against 
permitting such a precedent as this to escape without instant and 
most emphatic condemn.ation of the act, and of all who have been 
concerned in its perpetration. 

The Supreme Court of the United States in 1870 delivered an opinion 
which led them to consider the relation of the States and the General 
Government, with a single dissent, and that a partial one, being 
rather to the application than to the doctrine eiiunciated. It will 
not fall with less weight upon the ear of the American people when 
I say that it was from the lips of the late Judge Nelson, of New 
York — clartim et rcnerabile nomen — that these views of the relations of 
State and Federal Government came. 

The court say: 

That the sovereign powers vested in the State governments by their respective 
constitutious remaiuod unaltered and unimpaired, except so tar as they were 
gi-anted to tlie (loverument of the United States. That th;/ intention of the'framers 
of the Co^l^^titution in this respect might not bo niisundcistood, tills rule of inter- 
pretation is ex))rcssly declared in the tenth article of the auicndnu nts, namely : " The 
l>owers not delegated to the United States are reserved to the States respectively 
or to the people." The Govemment of the United States, therefore, can claim no 
powers which are not granted to it by the Constitution, and the powers actually 
granted must he such a.s are exjiressly given or given by necessary implication. 

The General Government and (he States, altbough both exist within the .same 
tenitorial limits, are .separate anil distinct sovereignties, acting separatel.y and 
independently of each other Avithin tluir respective spheres. The former in its 
appropriate sphere Is supreme ; but tlu- States, \Nit bin the limits of their powers not 
granted, or, in the language of the tenth amendment "reserved," are as independ- 
ejit of tlie General Government as that Government within its sphere is independ- 
ent of the States. 

Such being the sei):i;ate and indejieiident condition of the States in our com- 
plex system, as recognized by till' Constitution, and the exi.stonco of which is SO 
indisp'ensablr, that iriHunif fhcin llie (u'ncral Cdrenitttent itseT/ tvoulcl dwajipear 
from the family of mttianx. it wonhl seem to follow, as a rrasonable. if not a neces- 
sary consequence, that the nieansand iii.strnnu-nlalitirs eni]iloyi-d for ran ying on 
tlie operations of their governments, for ])rese]-ving their existenee. and fnllilliug 
the high and responsible duties assigiuMl to them in the ('onstitution. slnvuldhe left 
free and unimpaired, should not be liable to !><■ eripided, nnieli livss defeated by the 

'■■ ' * power of another aovernmeut, which power acknowledges no limits but 
the will of the legi.slative body. *• * * * 



19 

MTthont tliis power, and the oxci'cise of it, wo risk iiotliinir in sayins t'lat no 
one ot tlio States under tlie form of government jjiiarantecd by tlio Constitution 
could long preserve its existence. A desiiotic goveiimieiit niiglit. (11 Wal- 
lace's Keport, 124-1:26.) 

So, sir, wo have hero from the calm, serene height of Judiciiil (■nii- 
nence such a description and history of the true rel;i(ioiis ol' the 
States to the General Government that we can more clearly a])i»re- 
ciato the utter ruin and confusion which would coiue fromadinitring 
the rightful attempt of such power as has been attempted by the 
President of the United States within the State of Louisiana. This 
interference at all, under the guise of "recognition," has proceeded 
to a most dangerous and threatening extent. In 1844, when this doc- 
trine was tirst broached in the case of the State of Rhode Island, the 
power was there adjudged to l)e vested in the political branch of the 
Government, and not to the judicial, to decide as to the rightfulness 
of two governments claiming each to represent a State. A message 
was sent by the then President of the United States which, it strikes 
me, ought to avail much with those who desire to come at a clear and 
proper understanding of oiu- present crisis. 

I resist — 

Said he — 

tlie idea that it falls witliin the esecutive competency to decide in controversies of 
the nature of that which existed in Rhode Island, oii which side is the majoiity of 
the people, or as to the extent of the rights of a mere numerical majority. For 
the Executive to assume such a power would be to assume a power of the most 
dangerous character. Under such assumptions the States of this Union would 
have no seciuity for peace or tranquillity, but might be converted into the mere 
instruments of Executive will. Aituated by sclfisli purposes, he might become 
the great agitator, fomenting assaults upon the State, constitutions, and declaring 
the majority of to-day to be the minoi'ity of to-morrow; and the minority, in its 
turn, the majority, before whose decrees the established order of things in the 
State .should be subverted. Eevolutiou, civil commotion, and Idoodshed would be 
the inevitable consequences. The provision in the Constitution intended for the 
secirrity of the States would thus be turned into the instrument of their destruc- 
tion. The President would become in fact the great constitution maker for the 
States, and all power would be vested in his hands. — House Journal, First Session 
Twenty-eighth Congress, pages 765, 766. 

This is a fair pictiu'e of what would necessarily be the result if 
such power is admitted to exist lawfully in the hands of the Presi- 
dent as he and his subordinates have attempted to exercise in Louisi- 
ana. 

Sir, it is now presented, feebly I admit, but presented I believe 
fairly by me to the judgment of this Senate and to the American 
people. They can answer now whether the (xualifications of mem- 
bers who are to be summoned either to a State Legislature or to a 
Federal Legislature — for both are governed by the same language ; 
the one found in the Federal Constitution, the other found in the con- 
stitutions of the States — shall be passed upon by the Executive. The 
Ijower given in Louisiana to her Legislature to judge each house of 
the election, return, and qualification of its members is just as sacred, 
just as clearly given as that which enables the members of this body 
or the other House of CongTess to judge of the qualilicatious of its 
membershi}*. If language, if clear constitutional law aiul provisions 
cannot have the effect to protect one, then they Avill not liave the 
effect to protect the other, and it seems to me to be a mere feeling of 
the jtopular pulse on this subject to see how far this attempt of power 
can be extended without resistance. If it shall be accepted, if my 
fellow-countrymen shall forget what constitutes liberty and the 
vigilance necessary to protect that which was gained by so much toil 
and suffering by their ancestors, and if they shall disregard it in re- 



20 

spoct of a portion of their fellow-coimtiymeu and oue of the members 
of this Union of States, then depend uj^on it they will shortly be called 
upon to meet it on a broader scale, protected by no other right than 
the nominal sacredness of law as superior to oiiicial will. 

I said, sir, that I was glad that this last act in Louisiana was but 
a barefaced exercise of brute force, unaccompanied by any veil or 
cover of false decision by corrupt courts. I believe that, m what I 
must think the utterly disingenuous statement of the President in 
1872 that he meant simply to obey the orders of the coui'ts, there was 
the suggestion that he was acting in subordination of the military to 
the civil power, that he was bowing his head, backed by the Army 
and Navy, before the decree of some feeble but just-minded magis- 
trate ; and there was in that something that recommended his action 
to that portion of the American people who would not or who could 
not comprehend the real history of his action. But that poor veil is 
now fortuuatcdy thrown aside. All men agree that Durell's action in 
1872 was fraudulent and absolutely void. He himself has resigned, 
hoping to esca]ie trial, thus confessing his guilt in open court ; and 
no man in this body, however heated by partisanship, has ventured 
to say that there was justification of law for the orders of Judge 
Durell by which a Legislatm-e in 1873 was dispossessed of its rightful 
power, a State-house seized and garrisoned with United States troops, 
a defeated mmority placed in legislative power, and the usurper, 
Kellogg, tossed into the governor's chair and kept there by the armed 
forces of the United States. 

But now there Is no Durell, there are no alleged " orders of a 
court " to bo respected, there is no pretense of bowing the power of 
the military before the civil law ; but it is the mailed hand of the 
soldier that stands to-day the sole emblem of power in the State of 
Louisiana, plainly, unmistakably. I do not propose to go over the 
tangled story of falsehood, fraud, and wrong which marked the 
Louisiana case from 1872 to this day ; but to-day my countrymen 
cannot doubt, for " he that runs may read " the history of what is 
to-day, and of what I fear, if it is not checked, it will be from this 
time on. 

Sir, this story of Louisiana and her wrongs is as old as the story of 
tlu! human heart. If men are not comfortable and are not happy, 
they will be turbulent and they will be discontented. And what peo- 
ple, I ask, ever were happy under the rule of strangers and of aliens ? 
It need not be that the stranger or the alien is necessarily corrupt, 
wicked, or Tinjust. Gi'ant even that he were not ; he is not their 
choice ; he is not of their kith and their kin; he has not that blood 
which is thicker than water, and which we all feel binds us to those 
among whom we were born and have lived; a feeling that causes 
even the quiet earth itself to seem sweeter if it is our birth-place, 
;ind is implanted in our very instincts. And are human laws to be 
made without reference to human instincts ? Are you to eviscerate 
fi'om the men, women, and children you propose to govern their na- 
tures and those habits \vhich have become nature f And if you do, can 
you expect the natural effects not to follow ? You disregard their hap- 
pijiess. Can they consider yours? If yoti render them unhappy and 
insecure in regard to themselves and to their aflfairs, will tliey care to 
promote your happiness and your security ? But no, sir ; the rule is a 
plain and clear one ; and would to God this Congress for an instant 
would listen to the conunon dictate of humanity and respond to it. 
Give these people a government they can love ; let men rule over them 
whom they can respect ; but do not give them these shams of free 



21 

governmeut, and not expect the results of tyranny to flow and form 
it. It will not work, gentlemen. The macliincry of this coiuitry's 
govenimeut was not intended for a despotism, and you cannot reach 
its results without radically changing that machinery, and at last in 
Louisiana it has been openly sought to be radically changed. 

Where the people of the Southern States have been permitted to 
elect their own rulers and make laws which produce content, peace 
and quiet have followed, and this you all know, because there is not 
a man in this body or out of it who cannot Avith jJcrfect safety and 
welcome go to any part of the Southern States, if he only goes there 
as a friend and well-wisher of the iieople ; and if he be not, why 
should he go there? No, sir ; turbulence and uuhappiness are insep- 
arable companions in human breasts, and peace and pleasantness are 
associated and have been for all time. Give these people content, 
treat them with justice, and you shall have the fruit of such treat- 
ment, peace and good order and strength and happiness for our en- 
tire country. Disregard these ]>lain results, and the fruits will be 
borne that have been borne so plentifully, and which now are sought 
to be stopped only by a pei'petuatiou and intensification of the very 
methods that have produced them. 

Mr. President, I have not forgotten that this is the anniversary of 
a day of glory to the American arms, and the illustration of that 
glory and valor was in this same city of New Orleans. Wo all were 
proud of it ; not in Louisiana more than Delaware — it was generally 
celebrated in every State ; and to-day patriotic associations are meet- 
ing to keep alive the memories of the glory of oiu" common country. 

Mr. President, shall the glory of 1815 be altogether clouded and 
dimmed by the shame of 1875 ? Shall it be that those brave men who, 
against greatly disproportionate odds, defended the city of New Orleans 
against superior nnmbers of aforeign foe — shall those men have fought 
in vain ? Shall the glory of New Orleans and the fact that she was 
the scene of honor to American arms Ije now clouded by T)eing the 
scene of disgrace to the American arms ? Sir, I trust not. I hope not. 
Ambition, misjudgment, and ignorance of civil rule, high partisan 
feeling, all may have combined lo carry the executive branch of this 
Government and his soldiers thixs far ; but I believe that when his ac- 
tion is understood the American people will give him a command 
wliich he shall hear and obey, and' that he shall be forced to recede 
from the position he has taken, and to take his armed hand from the 
throat of that prostrate people, and let her people once more know, 
in the language of the bill of rights of the State of Massachusetts, 
that they live under " a government of laws and not of men." 

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